This invention relates to a hinge assembly for rotatably connecting a device main body of a cellular telephone, a notebook type personal computer, etc., and a rotating body for opening and closing the device main body with respect to each other.
In general, a hinge assembly of this type comprises one pair of support sleeve portions which are disposed at a device main body and a rotating body and a hinge body. One and the other ends of the hinge body are inserted into the support sleeve portion of the device main body and support sleeve portion of the rotating body respectively. By this, the device main body and the rotating body are pivotably connected to each other.
For inserting the hinge body into the support sleeve portions, first, the axis of the support sleeve portion of the device body is aligned with the axis of the support sleeve portion of the rotating body. Then, the hinge body is inserted from one of the support sleeve portions. Thereafter, one end portion of the hinge body is inserted all the way into the other support sleeve portion from one of the support sleeve portion.
In the case the hinge body is inserted into the support sleeve portions in this way, the hinge body can escape from the support sleeve portions. Therefore, in order to prevent the hinge body from escaping from the support sleeve portions, a bottom portion is formed at one end portion of one of the support sleeve portions and a shaft portion extending through the bottom portion is formed on that end portion of the hinge body which faces the bottom portion. A stopper member such as a stop ring is fitted to a distal end portion of a shaft portion which projects outward from the support sleeve portions via the bottom portion. By doing so, the hinge body is prevented from escaping from the support sleeve portions.
In the case where the hinge body is prevented from escaping in the manner as mentioned above, it is indispensable to provide a stopper member and in addition, a process for attaching the stopper member becomes necessary. For this reason, the number of components and the labor for manufacturing thereof are increased, thus resulting in higher manufacturing cost. Moreover, in order to arrange such that the shaft portion extending through the bottom portion and the stopper member are not seen from outside, the bottom portion is formed at the internal end portion of the firs-tmentioned support sleeve portion and this support sleeve portion is arranged at an internal side of the other support sleeve portion. However, this arrangement has such a shortcoming that the external opening portion of the other support sleeve portion into which the hinge body is inserted is exposed outside. Thus, it becomes necessary to cover the opening portion with a decorative cover or the like. This again makes it necessary to correspondingly increase the number of components and to increase the process for attaching the decorative cover or the like, thus resulting in much higher manufacturing cost. Moreover, even if the opening portion of the other support sleeve portion is covered with a decorative cover, there still remains a line indicating a border between the decorative cover and the support sleeve portion. This degrades the outlook of the hinge assembly.
The present invention has been accomplished in order to solve the above problems. The feature of the present invention resides in a hinge assembly comprising a pair of support sleeve portions disposed at a device main body and a rotating body respectively with axes thereof aligned and a hinge body, one and the other end portions of the hinge body being inserted into the pair of support sleeve portions respectively, thereby pivotably connecting the device main body and the rotating body together, the hinge assembly further comprising an engagement mechanism disposed between an inner peripheral surface of one of the pair of support sleeve portions (this support portion will be hereinafter referred to as the first support sleeve portion and the other as the second support sleeve portion) and the hinge body and adapted to prohibit the hinge body from escaping at least in one direction from the first support sleeve portion.
In the above arrangement, it is preferred that the engagement mechanism includes an engagement recess portion formed in the inner peripheral surface of the first support sleeve portion and an engagement portion displaceably disposed at the hinge body in a radial direction thereof, the engagement portion being displaced radially outward so as to be engaged with the engagement recess portion, the engagement portion, when abutted with that side surface of the engagement recess portion which faces in an axial direction of the first support sleeve portion, prohibiting the hinge body from escaping in one direction from the first support sleeve portion. Particularly preferably, the engagement portion is composed of a totally elastically deformable engagement piece, such that a basal end portion of the engagement portion is integral with the hinge body and a distal end portion thereof is displaceable in a radial direction of the hinge body.
It is also preferred that selected one of the first and second support sleeve portions has a closed end (bottom portion) and an open end, while the remaining support sleeve portion has both open ends, and the engagement mechanism prohibits the hinge body from escaping from the selected support sleeve portion towards the remaining support sleeve portion. Particularly preferably, two of the selected support sleeve portions are disposed with axes thereof aligned and two of the remaining support sleeve portions are also disposed with axes thereof aligned, the two selected support sleeve portions being arranged away from each other in an axial direction with bottom portions thereof located at an external side thereof and the two remaining support sleeve portions being arranged away from each other in an axial direction and adjacent to an internal side of the two selected support sleeve portions, two of the hinge bodies being inserted into each of the mutually adjacent two sets of support sleeve portions.
It is also accepted that the device body and the rotating body are a telephone main body and a cover body of a cellular telephone, respectively.